From another angle, Apple only seems concerned with duplication of features if an application competes with an app that they already made. If you’re competing with another non-default third-party application, you can go and duplicate all you want (hence the oft-cited Fart apps).

The real problem, then, is that Google Voice, and all it offers, is actually much better than what AT&T offers.

Apple and AT&T are living dangerously though. Apple has also forced video services like Slingbox to cripple their applications because of purported concerns over data usage, while approving ones from paying partners (e.g. Major League Baseball) that would put more strain on a network than Slingbox’s would.

Technical marketing is not about spamming, selling out, deceiving or spreading FUD regarding your competition, whoever they may be. Technical marketing is about promoting a given product or technology by clearly illustrating its advantages to a technical audience.

Ruby on Rails’ story is a proverbial example of technical marketing done right – and it all started with a convincing screencast by David Heinemeier Hansson. David’s demo was not the most amazing technical demonstration of all time, but it was effective at conveying the potential benefits that could derive from the adoption of this new framework. That’s what got people interested enough to want to take a second look at it. The framework actually being good, did the rest.

Small adjustments to the way we think about projects and the way we showcase them, can have a huge impact on their success. It’s worth genuinely caring about these details and embracing the possibilities that begin to open up when you make decisions with marketing in the forefront of your mind.